India might be planning to bring in great reformations in its Army’s structure starting by trimming down the number of its army personnel and introducing temporary army men who could go on a “three-year tour of duty” to serve the nation. The tour will ensure army men do not end up becoming a liability to the system which has to pay the salaries as well as the pensions that continue after the death of the person who once served in the army. As of now, a large chunk of the country’s budget goes directly for the defence and even there, the entire amount is not spent on increasing and upgrading the weaponry.
As of now, out of the $70 Billion Budget for the defence, over half of it goes into the ever-increasing salaries and pensions. The budget is no matter an increased one and has witnessed an increase of over 9 per cent for the current fiscal, but the spending is still not focused and targeted aiming the modernization, pushing the Government to do something novel.
The idea of a “three-year tour of duty” in the proposal that has been floated and is currently with the ministry of defence, is not only detrimental to the integrity as well as the coherence of the Indian army but will also end up creating “temporary soldiers”, which will not only be dangerous for the forces in general but would also end up compromising the sovereignty as well as the integrity of the nation.
At the same time, the trimming of the army also does not appear to be something workable on the ground. The proposal, about which matters have been reported in the media, appears to be lacking a strong grounding, means and ways on how to achieve the objective of trimming the number of army personnel serving the nation. What is it actually going to do with the men serving the nation currently?
If at all, the Government is planning to go ahead with any such plan, there is a dire need for reconsidering the same because as of now, the country is fighting one of the powers up in the Himalayas—China, and on the other side, Pakistan, even though, there is a thaw in relations, and the borders have been peaceful, but the country like India which is surrounded by hostile neighbours should not think on trimming down the number of its army.
India is already the world’s third-largest military spender, after the US and China, and the world’s second-largest importer of arms; even as it has already started a campaign of manufacturing the defence equipment domestically—set to witness a grand success. Right now, such a proposal needs to be shelved keeping in view the prevailing global as well as the domestic scenarios. One thing that needs to be pursued is the campaign of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, particularly in the defence sector—it is something that has the potential of transforming every crucial sector of the country.
